One of the worst kept secrets surrounding the Mets was the fact that Chip Hale was ready to head back home to Northern California to join his buddy Bob Melvin as bench coach for the A’s. What was surprising was the domino effect Hale’s departure had on the rest of the coaching staff.

Mookie Wilson was let go with the old “we’ll reassign you in the organization” which is like when a cop sucks at fighting crime, the NYPD sticks them in the property clerk’s office. But where does Mookie get reassigned to? Word is he didn’t work well with Lucas Duada in getting him acclimated to right field and he wasn’t very good at positioning the outfielders or working with base runners during games. Wilson also hasn’t fared too well as a minor league manager and since he had trouble coaching the outfield with the big club, roving minor league instructor seems out as well. What’s left?

Jon DeBus got the boot from the bullpen it seems because he was a catcher and the club would rather have Buffalo pitching coach Rickey Bones, a former pitcher, in the pen to work with the relievers. DeBus was also in charge of working with Josh Thole and Ronnie Paulino and supposedly wasn’t helping Thole with his defense and was negligent in getting Paulino to show a better work ethic.

It’s a shame that Ken Oberkfell got the ax as Obie did what he was assigned to do, be the yin to Terry Collins’ yang. Obie was brought in the be Collins bench coach because he was calm, cool and collected a contrast to Collins “makes coffee nervous” persona. Obie is one of those good solid baseball men who did everything he was asked by the organization and now is shown the door. I hope he lands with a team that makes the post season and gets to cash one of the nice winner’s checks.

The job for Collins’ consigliore it seems is between Larry Bowa and Jim Ringgleman. Both are close confidants of Collins but I will be really pissed off if Riggleman gets the job as the Mets should be looking to stay away from quitters.

Once upon a time, Murray Chass was one of the best baseball writers around. His coverage of baseball labor disputes was unparalleled due to his close relationship with former MLBPA President Don Fehr and his mouthpiece Gene Orza but after Chass was let go by the NY Times he became a bitter nasty old man and started a website (he’s refused to call himself what he really is, a blogger) where he could spout his bitter nasty old man bullshit. Today he posted about Jeffey Skill Sets and how he is known around baseball as the most disliked executive in baseball. Of course, Old Man Murray rails for most of the post about the Mets blocking the Highlanders Triple A team from playing in Newark next year (oh yeah I forgot, Chass is an unabashed Highlander ball licker an older version of Ian O’Connor) but at the end of his piece he stated something that I have heard as well so that’s why I’ve included it in my post:

Sandy Alderson, Minaya’s successor, is completing his first season in the job, and I have already heard that he is growing tired of Wilpon’s suffocating presence.

Now if this was just Murray being Murray I’d laugh it off but I have heard the same thing from folks whose take on things around the club I respect and stories they have told me have turned out very reliable. I’ve always said I’m a Mets fan for life but I’ll tell you this, If Sandy Alderson leaves the Mets because of dealing with Jeffey is getting in the way of his work then I’d have to seriously think of stopping my support of the team until a new owner takes over.

Last night I had the privilege to be invited to a Mets bloggers conference call with New York Mets V.P. of Player Development and Amateur Scouting, Paul DePodesta. The conference call was to start at 6:30PM and the problem I had was I had a game at that time with my Babe Ruth League team. Thankfully I have a great bench coach to run the dugout and make moves and one of the parents who is a coach as well helped out while I headed to the car to call in on the conference call, by the way, we won 5-4 to keep our first place lead at two games.

When I do one of these calls I always like to write down about 5 or 6 questions just in case someone asks a similar question. For this call I had 8 questions for DePodesta, but when it came to my turn I decided to go with this:

“Looking at the recent draft, the breakdown of picks was nearly even between pitchers and position players. Was that the plan going into the draft? Looking at the complete draft, it seemed like there were clusters of picks that went especially towards pitching. Was this done because they were the best pick available at that time, or was this something that was planned ahead — targeting pitching especially towards the middle and late rounds of the draft?”

DePo’s response was:

“To answer the first question about the 50/50 split — to be honest I didn’t even know that, so that wasn’t necessarily our plan going in. I think that’s generally how it falls, even with our rosters. Most of our minor league clubs are going to be about 50/50 between pitchers and position players. In terms of clustering some of the picks around a certain position or around pitching, that certainly was planned. We felt there was a particular depth – an unusual depth – of pitching in this year’s draft. There were some moments where we wanted to take position players, where we felt like if we were going to get the position player we wanted we needed to take them now. And after that we felt there was going to be a pool of pitching to choose from. We attacked that pool aggressively and when that pool was exhausted we re-evaluated where we were and went back to some position players. One of the things you’ll probably see is that rounds two through five were all college pitching. Once we got to round ten it was mainly high school pitching. That was certainly a calculated decision made before the draft.”

The one thing you read about this past entry draft was it that it was deep in pitching and the Mets took advantage of that depth.

I was going to ask about how the negotiations were going with Brandon Nimmo and if we will see Michael Fulmer, Cory Mazzoni or Jack Leathersich on the MCU Park mound this summer. I really wanted to ask if the team has thought about hiring Rick Peterson as a system wide pitching czar using Peterson’s expertise in the physics of pitching and his working relationship with Dr. Glenn Fleisig of American Sports Medicine Institute. To me this is a perfect match since Peterson, Sandy Alderson and DePodesta all have a working relationship going back to their Oakland days.

I’m pretty sure I can speak for all the Mets bloggers who have been invited to these conference calls and to the events at Citi Field that we have gotten more insight into how this organization operates and are thank full for the opportunities the Mets have given us. The new front office has a great deal of respect for us and for the Mets fans and they seem to enjoy these conference calls as much as we do.

A big thank you to Shannon Forde and Danielle Parillo of the Mets for arranging the calls and events at Citi Field.

I’m here today to praise the Skill Sets not burry them especially Freddy and Uncle Saul who I feel are the ones that have finally figured out that Little Jeffey needs a timeout and it’s time to let the smart guys run this franchise. Listen, Jeffey doesn’t need to be totally out of the picture, he can still do inventory at the Team Store, or help cut up the peppers and onions for the sausage concession as long as he is out of the baseball ops I’m a happy Mets fan.

With all this new found happiness with the new and improved front office will Mets fans be happy with whoever is chosen to be the Mets manager? It seems Wally Backman is the fans favorite but if all the reports are true, it looks like Terry Collins could be the leader in the clubhouse with his ties to DePo and Sandy Koufax but maybe Backman would be given the choice to be third base or bench coach? Same with Chip Hale. What about Old School Werthen? Maybe a return of The Jacket? Stay tuned!

The ESPN team of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan are no more. I never had a problem with Miller although he is much better as a radio announcer than a TV head and Morgan I won’t disparage as he is one of the best baseball players I ever saw (not so good at analyzing on TV though) ESPN has a chance to put two guys that employed by the WWL that would be a must listen for any baseball fan, put John “Boog” Sciambi and Bobby Valentine together in the Sunday Night Booth. That would be downright entertaining.

Now that the GM is in place, the next move to be made for field manager. Besides bombarding Sandy Alderson with inquires about his A’s team and PED usage, the next big discussion by the MSM will be who and how Alderson will pick a manager. There seems to be no shortage of candidates. Let’s look over a few of the candidates:

Wally Backman- The fans choice to be manager is Backman. But is this a wise choice? Fans love the fact that Backman has a Mets championship ring and has a Billy Martin feel to him. Fans love Backman so much that they disregard the baggage he brings with him. His stewardship of the Brooklyn Cyclones was a positive for Wally and when asked about the Mets job he made it clear that he would work with the GM and carry out the organizations plan. Backman doesn’t just pine to be a big league manger he wants to be the Mets manager. He will definitely get an interview but I’m not sure he’ll get the job.

Chip Hale-Very well regarded in baseball and was a bright spot on the 2010 coaching staff. An organization favorite, Hale comes from a strong fundamentals background with the Twins. I don’t know how much Alderson knows of Hale but the Skill Sets like him

Ken Oberkfell-A loyal organization man. Has success in the Mets system and in the Winter Leagues. The thing is I don’t know if Alderson wants to go with an organizational guy or bring in his own man.

Terry Collins-Well regarded as a coach and met with Alderson when he worked in the Mets Dominican Academy and has managerial experience. If not manager, Collins could find himself as Mets bench coach.

Lee Mazzilli- This one I don’t get at all. Supporters say he got a raw deal in Baltimore under the Angelos reign of terror. Still I don’t get this one at all.

Clint Hurdle- Had a nice little run in Denver and he seems to be media friendly and now that he’s on the Texas staff he has some exposure.

Bob Melvin-Uhhhhhhh NO!

Now you have to figure Alderson has a list of candidates from his days in the A’s and Padres front office and the big relief I have is the confidence that Alderson will make the right choice who ever he chooses. When was the last time we could say that about a Mets GM?

I’m a Backman supporter as I saw him in action this summer in Brooklyn and his teams were very aggressive offensively kind of like what we’ve seen from the Texas Rangers this post season. Backman had the rep of protecting his players which in turn garners respect of his players giving him a good handle on the clubhouse. The bigger issue with Backman would be how he handles the media. For all the fun and games of Jerry Manuel’ pre and post game pressers he really told us nothing. But he had a nice smile and made people happy just like Jeff Francoeur another Flushing failure.

If Oberfell got the job I’d be on board with that as well. Talk about paying your dues, Obie has done that with the Mets and he shouldn’t be overlooked for the job. Same for Chip Hale. I love the fact that Hale has a Minnesota pedigree and I’d have to believe he would be a manager that would stress the fundi’s big time and also play an aggressive brand of ball.

Kudos to Paul Lukas and the great Uni-Watch site for calling bullshit on these so called retro uni’s the Mets are hawking. As Lukas so eloquently states, these are the same pinstriped uniforms the Mets never wear only in a darker shade of white. Plus they still have the name on the back and of course the ugly ass black shadow. I guess the black is appropriate though as Mets fans we are always in mourning.

If the Blue Jays are dumb enough to trade Roy Halliday to either the Highlanders or Red Sox then Jeffey Skill Sets may have competition for the dopiest executive in baseball. Trading Halliday to their AL East biggest competitors would be like the Mets trading Johan Santana to the Phillies or Braves Oh shit, I hope I didn’t give Jeffey an idea?

Even though this doesn’t make sense because it’s the right move to make and the Mets the last couple of years haven’t made many right moves, I still feel the Mets will be a major player in the Halladay Sweepstakes.

Third base will be manned by Chip Hale who worked for the Minnesota Twins during the successful Tom Kelly era. (How great would it be to have Tom Kelly step in as Mets manager? In fact I may post Kelly’s picture and managerial stats once a week to get the drums beating)

Back and hopefully better are Old School Dan Warthen and Randy Niemann and of course HoJo .

The most important and some what puzzling hire was that of Terry Collins as the Minor League Field Coordinator. From reading his resume I can’t figure out what Collins qualifications are to get such an important job? It’s not like he is coming in with and championship pelts on his belt or a list of players that were developed under his rein plus last year he was managing in something called the Northwoods Summer League. When you look at his body of work hw sure has held a lot of jobs in baseball and not too many with success. I guess as long as he doesn’t curse out the bushers and take his shirt off he’ll be ok.

The off season is not even 24 hours old and I want to rip someone throat out in the Mets front office. The shit heads in charge have made their big announcement on the changes in the coaching staff. Sandy Alomar Sr and Luis Alicea get the ax and Hojo, Razor Shines and Old School Dan Warthen get to stay.

Sandy Sr. will be reassigned to another job in the organization most likely tending bar in the Aclea Club, Alicea will be reassigned to body and fender work across the street at Minaya’s Auto Repairs.

Hojo stays because David Wright says he stays, and Wright is the highest ranking Caucasian in the clubhouse so he gets to make a minority hire . You wouldn’t have to be an online betting specialist to know that was going to happen.

Razor Shines stays because he and Jerry are tight which makes Shines, Jerry’s Art Fowler with the cirosess of the liver of course. Thankfully Razor will be assigned to bench coach job so no more innocent base runners get injured. Look for Obie One Oberkfell named as third base traffic cop.

Old School Dan Warthen stays because he has threatened to go public with stories of Jeffey Skill Sets, Mr. Met and Charlie Samuels hooking up at the Holiday Inn on Roosevelt Ave for an erotic adventure. My sources tell me there is a picture of all three involved in a ménage au trois while wearing black Mets uniform tops and black Mets caps with blue bills. Mr Met now answers to the name “Lucky Pierre.” NFL Odds weren’t even taken on this one.

Sandy Alomar Jr and Randy Niemann are staying as well because there is no definitive proof that Sandy Alomar Jr or Randy Niemann actually exists.

Sure it sucked seeing Scott Kazmir on the mound for the Famous Rays last night but to be honest, Â as much as Iâ€™m a Kazmir fanboy I thought he stunk last night. How the hell do you walk Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz for God sake you have to let those two swing the bat CHALLENGE THEM DAMIT! Kaz was lucky that Upton made a strong throw to nail the little prick Victorino at the plate for an inning ending DP as that at least let the Rays stay in the game.

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I though the 3rd inning was the turning point in the game as the Rays had a chance to make Cole Hamels life difficult with the bases juiced and 1 out with hot hitting BJ Upton at bat. Upton this past season hit a robust .353 in a bases loaded situation, so the odds looked good that even a fly ball would at least get the Rays on the board but Upton hit into an inning ending DP something he did only 13 times all season.Â

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Add that to Kazmir having runners on base every inning he pitched four of them via the base on balls and this game wasnâ€™t as close as the score board showed. Itâ€™s up to James Shields to get the Pizza Guys even in the series. In my mind Game 2 is a must win for the Rays.

With the economic climate in this country and newspapers facing extinction why in the world did the NY Daily News waste money by sending Bill Madden to the World Series to write about how all the team in the NL East hate the Mets. Not exactly ground breaking there Billy Pinstripes. You almost nailed a good column as you wrote about Pat Gillick turning around the Phillies and the Mariners but you missed the boat on the big story as Gillick was the Skill Sets choice to take over the Mets after the Steve Phillips disaster era but turned them down due to Jeffey Skill Sets meddling ways.

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